Accumulated oxygen deficit among highly conditioned female rowers during a 2,000 meter race simulation

• Main Author: Pripstein, Laura
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5972

In the last twenty years there have been various studies that have examined physiologic demands of rowing for the competitive athlete, however most of the literature focuses on male rowers. Now with the growing popularity of women's rowing programs at both collegiate and national levels, there is a need for research that evaluates the physiological profiles of highly conditioned oarswomen. The significant contribution of aerobic work to a rower's performance has been substantiated in past research (Hagerman, F.C., 1984 ), however, fewer studies have specifically looked at anaerobic energy release during a simulated 2,000 meter rowing race in female rowers. This is partly due to the difficulty in quantifying anaerobic energy capacity in the laboratory. Studies by Medbo et al. (1988,1993) have validated the linear extrapolation method of accumulated oxygen deficit (AOD) to determine anaerobic energy release during exercise. Data on AOD suggest that 2 minutes of exercise to exhaustion is required to use anaerobic sources fully (Medbo et al., 1988). It has also been concluded by Gastin et al. (1995) that an "all-out" protocol provides a valid estimate of maximal AOD (mAOD). Therefore the objectives of the present study were to measure both the maximal anaerobic capacities of highly conditioned oarswomen by the AOD method and compare this to the AOD of each rower during a 2K race simulation (RS) on the Concept II rowing ergometer (RE). Sixteen highly trained female rowers volunteered for the study. The protocol consisted of 4, four minute submaximal V02 rowing bouts (20-80% max), a 2 minute all-out test, and a 2K RS. Each test was performed on the RE with V02 and power output (PO) recorded every 15 sec. Positive linear correlations between V02 and PG for each subject were all greater than 0.99. The mAOD (2 minutes) averaged 3.40L± 0.68 which was not significantly different than the AOD for the 2K RS (3.50L±1.40). These results indicate that the subjects maximally taxed their anaerobic energy systems in the RS. Total time for 2K RS averaged 7.5 min±0.2 and the relative contribution of the anaerobic energy sources during RS equaled approximately 12% of total as determined via the AOD method.